Don Thompson, the president and chief executive of McDonald’s, has said that
the fast-food chain is weighing up the cost benefits of serving its morning
menu all day

Thompson told CNBC, after being asked by a viewer whether the chain would consider all-day breakfasts: “Yes, we would consider it. We have to focus on our existing menu, focus on the delivery of that and great customer experiences.”

“But we have looked at breakfast across the day.”

With almost half of McDonald’s outlets open 24 hours a day, breakfast staples such as the bacon roll or the sausage and egg McMuffin, as well as the McDonald’s big breakfast, which contains 615 calories, could be served around the clock.

The global proposal to extend serving times is part of a sales-boosting project led by the company’s Innovation Center, after McDonald’s last week announced weaker-than-expected US and European sales.

The fast-food chain is also considering a loyalty scheme for regular customers, mobile payment systems, and home delivery service.

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McDonald’s admits it has been “a little bit late” to the increased demand for take-away – already offered in the US by its rival Burger King – and is testing home delivery overseas and in some unnamed US cities.

According to Thompson, some of the “innovative ways” for McDonald’s to expand its breakfast hours will be effective “in the near future”.

The chain first hinted at serving breakfast all day in 2006, under the then-chief executive Jim Skinner. At the time, Skinner said the chain was making operating changes that would make it possible to offer the breakfast menu 24 hours a day.

Last year, McDonald’s launched a “Breakfast After Midnight” programme to offer some of its morning menu late at night. The trial scheme, in 127 outlets in Ohio, was promoted using the newly coined name “nocturnivores”.

Thompson described home delivery, which has already been launched in Latin America, as “a big, big, opportunity, particularly in areas where we don’t have a Drive Thru’”.